Back from a little sojourn

I've taken a week and a day off.....and I do have a good excuse. First, I was unlucky enough to coincide my Miami visit with Katrina and after returning home I repacked my bag to travel to San Francisco where I met my little niece for the first time. Maya Sierra Alpert, thank you very much. An absolutely delicious baby!

So that is my story. As you all know, Katrina has been a nightmare for the entire country. I don't want to go on and on about it but I do want to acknowledge the fact that the city of Houston has been hit pretty hard....taking in over 265,000 refugees. My family lives about one mile from the Astrodome and driving down Main Street has become its own reality show disaster. People begging on the streets....huge crowds gathering around fast food restaurants.....people just sitting on the sidewalks looking desperate. Call me a coward but I've been trying to find a new route to get around.

Everyone I know has been volunteering in whatever way they can. Despite the disorganized relief effort, we can say that volunteers are being utlized very efficiently here at the Dome and at the George R. Brown Convention Center. No joke. My mother reported that prospective volunteers were being turned away over this holiday weekend. The outpouring of assistance has been tremendous.

Even so, the possible long term ramifications of this tragedy haunt me daily. One news program reported that 16 states have agreed to accept refugees. One man found himself in Utah after taking his first plane ride from the New Orleans International Airport. Can you imagine? This poor man has never even left his city and is now supposed to find "home" on the other side of the country.

We read articles about Bosnia, Sudan, Kosovo. We learn about exile and study the effects of war and relocation. Post-traumatic stress disorder became a household condition after 9/11. No matter how much we read, how much we study, or how much we travel...there is NO way to imagine the sense of helplessness experienced by the people of the Gulf Coast. It is my hope to gather some stories from the refugees themselves and tell you about them on the blog later this week. Stay tuned....